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08 August 2012

WIP Wednesday

Okay, here is my real WIP Wednesday post for the week. I hardly finished anything, but we will still go ahead and start with that.

Here is a block I made with scraps. I like the double pinwheel a lot, but the lighter aqua fabric just looks too light. This block is in desperate need of ironing, so just ignore the wrinkles and puckering, please.

Now on to the arduous process of the monstrosity that is the quilts for Jonathan and Chloe. J&C are my cousin Claire's two children who are 7 and 5 respectively. I was not yet a quilter when they were born. My cousin Claire has been getting peeved that all our cousins who are having babies now are getting quilts. So, I told her I would make them both quilts. The interest that has been tacked on for waiting this long has turned them both into big quilts.

I have finished the front of Chloe's quilt. I used the "Big Blocks" pattern. This pattern is so incredibly easy. I finished cutting & piecing all of the the front in one evening. I swear, it felt like I was making that magic jelly roll quilt everyone is talking about. Here is the front with my obligatory driveway shot:

FABRIC SPOTLIGHT TIME!!! Do the fabric spotlight dance!!! Wooohooo!!!

Okay, now that the dancing is done, I can talk about the fabric. Well, one of the pinks. I bought this fabric when I was visiting family in Hawaii with my boyfriend this past May. My aunt in Hawaii actually helped pick it out, and then I decided to use it in Chloe's quilt so it would be like my aunt was involved. I love all the hibiscus fabric I got in Hawaii. Next time I go, I'm bringing back a whole suitcase full because it was so incredibly cheap! This is the one I used in Chloe's quilt:

Cute, huh?

I already have the back picked out for both of their quilts. Chloe is getting the absolutely perfect (unless you want to use it for a boy) in every way Berenstain Bear fabric and Jonathan is getting a super rad dinosaur Batik I found.

Before I move on to Jonathan's quilt completely, let me stay on the topic of things that I am actually making progress on!

First off, the Block of the Month by mail thingamajig I signed up for. Here are pictures of the first 2 patterns and fabric. My goal is to finish getting everything cut out today while my jam is boiling. I might even start piecing tonight. Might being the operative word there.

I also finally got off my butt and bought fabric in the Modern Quilt Guild colors. I have seen some beautiful blocks and these colors just go together so well. I am determined to make something fun! The women at my local quilt shop were cracking up when I started organizing the fabrics by color. Yay! OCD! But gosh, don't they look so pretty together when you finally get all your ducks in a row? Love, love, love!

Now, I can put it off no longer. I must talk about Jonathan's quilt. I had started his quilt with the intention of making some really cute dinosaur blocks I found in a rotary cut block book ages ago. So I cut out all the bits for the t-rex blocks, and was about to start cutting the triceratops bits when my mom sees how teeny tiny the blocks are and tells me to stop immediately because that is just too much work for this quilt. Ooookay.

Pshaw. You already know what is coming once someone says "what could go wrong" about a quilt pattern.

I cannot make this quilt. I don't know if it just feels like I am going nowhere, or if I feel guilty for using a more difficult pattern on his than I did for Chloe's, or if I don't like the fabric, or if I am just so frustrated from packing everything up, mid quilt for the construction in my house that is seemingly endless. /end rant

So, here is where I stand on this quilt. The blocks have been pieced together and sorted into rows. The rows have been labeled and clipped together with pins so they don't get all willy nilly during construction. But they have not been stitched into rows, and frankly, I do not want to. I have never felt this apathetic about a quilt before. Ahhh! Maybe I can just give him a pile of pieced squares? What 7 year old boy doesn't want a tower of what looks like sewing scraps??

Ugh, packing up all the time will do that to you. I KNOW I won't drag everything out if it's all packed away, which is why I stubbornly leave my machine and bits out on the dining table. Tidily, but there still.